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for|the band's debut EP|T.S.O.L. (EP)Infobox musical artist | name = T.S.O.L.| image = TSOL 2011-12-17 11.JPG| caption = Left to right: Roche, Bubz, Grisham, and Emory in 2011| image_size =| background = group_or_band| alias =| origin = Long Beach, California , United States| genre = Punk rock , gothic rock | years_active = 1978–present| label = Posh Boy Records|Posh Boy , Frontier Records|Frontier , Alternative Tentacles , Enigma Records|Enigma , Rhino Records|Rhino , Restless Records|Restless , Nitro Records|Nitro , DC-Jam Records | associated_acts = Vicious Circle| website = URL|truesoundsofliberty.com| current_members = Jack Grisham Ron Emory Mike Roche Tiny Bubz Greg Kuehn| past_members = Todd Barnes Samuel Langley Zill C. DeVille Joe Wood Mitch Dean Marshall Rohner Jay O'Brien Travis Johnson Billy Blaze Frank Agnew Jay Bentley | notable_instruments = T.S.O.L. (True Sounds of Liberty) is an American punk rock band formed in 1978 in Long Beach, California .Strong, Martin C. (1999). The Great Alternative & Indie Discography , Canongate Books, page 663. ISBN 0-86241-913-1. Although most commonly associated with hardcore punk , T.S.O.L.'s music varies on each release. They have also released music in the styles of deathrock , art punk , horror punk , and other varieties of punk music.
History
Formed in 1978 in Long Beach, California , T.S.O.L. originated as a hardcore punk band, developing from earlier bands Johnny Koathanger and the Abortions, and SS Cult. Later on Vicious Circle would form and T.S.O.L. would take a brief hiatus.
Featuring the lineup of vocalist Jack Grisham (who has been credited as Jack Greggors, Alex Morgan, Jack Ladoga, Jim Woo and James DeLauge), guitarist Ron Emory, bassist Mike Roche, and drummer Todd Barnes, the band's first release was a harshly political eponymous extended play|EP featuring tracks such as "Superficial Love," "World War III" and "Abolish Government."
Evolved sound
After their debut 4 song T.S.O.L. Extended play|EP in 1979 and 1980 they released Dance with Me (T.S.O.L. album)|Dance with Me . They later signed to independent label Alternative Tentacles , for which they released the Weathered Statues 7" extended play and the Beneath the Shadows album which featured, for the first time, keyboard player Greg Kuehn.
Amid personal turmoil, Jack Grisham and Todd Barnes left the band and were replaced by singer Joe Wood (Grisham's brother-in-law) and drummer Mitch Dean. This new line-up released the album Change Today? in 1984 on Enigma Records , which continued the post-punk direction and finished this era with Revenge (T.S.O.L. album)| Revenge in 1986, which featured more polished production but still kept some punk and hardcore tunes.
Jack Grisham|Grisham has gone on separately to a lengthy recording career.
Metal experimentation
The band became friends with Guns N' Roses and T.S.O.L. t-shirts can be seen in the GNR video for " Sweet Child o' Mine ", most notably on drummer Steven Adler . They followed up with an album in a similar style, titled Hit and Run (T.S.O.L. album)|Hit and Run . Before it was released, original guitarist Ron Emory quit the band, leaving Mike Roche as the sole original member.
T.S.O.L. were joined briefly by guitarist Scotty Phillips, who quit before the band started recording the follow-up to Hit and Run . They eventually hired former Dino's Revenge guitar player and actor Marshall Rohner cite web |url= http://www.stevenameche.com/dino.html |title= Dino's Revenge - Hollywood Fats & Marshall Rohner|accessdate=2011-04-15 |work=Steven Ameche |date=2011-04-15 . They released a blues-metal album titled Strange Love (album)|Strange Love in 1990. Mike Roche quit shortly before the album release, leaving no original member in the band. A compilation album entitled Hell and Back Together 1984–1990 was issued in 1992 with an emphasis on their metal era. Murphy Karges, later of Sugar Ray , briefly replaced Roche on bass as did Josh Also.
This late-eighties lineup was popular enough to invite bookings in Brazil and Argentina, where the Grisham-led band hold no legal rights to prevent Wood from gigging as T.S.O.L. Since 1996, Wood has been joined by guitarists including http://www.mikemartt.com Mike Martt and Drac Conley, drummers Steve "Sully" O’Sullivan and Mitch Dean and bassist Dave Mello, who joined the band near the end of its Enigma years run. Additionally, Wood has pursued musical work in Joe Wood and the Lonely Ones and Cisco Poison.
Original T.S.O.L. reform
Meanwhile, the original members started playing shows featuring the band's early material under the name T.S.O.L., often playing the same cities, the same nights as the other T.S.O.L.. Since Joe Wood and Mitch Dean now owned the rights to the name T.S.O.L., they threatened to sue the original members, who released a live album of their early material under the name "Grisham, Roche, Emory and Barnes" but stopped playing together soon after because of drug problems. They also did some gigs during this time as "LOST," T.S.O.L. backwards.
In 1996, most of the original members settled down and realized that they still had a passion for their music and that fans wanted them to reunite. In 1999, they fought with Wood for rights to the name and won before joining the Vans Warped Tour , playing for the first time in years under the name T.S.O.L.
Todd Barnes died of a brain aneurysm on December 6, 1999, at the age of 34. The remaining members recruited drummer Jay O'Brien and released the "Anticop" single and the albums Disappear and Divided We Stand on Nitro Records , the latter of which featured Greg Kuehn back on keyboards. The original T.S.O.L. recorded two more full length albums. In September 2007, Cider City Records released the posthumous live album Live From Long Beach , recorded in November 2006 on the weekend of the band's two "farewell" performances.
Their departure was short-lived, however, as they returned to perform a couple of local shows in late 2007. They also headlined the "Fuck the Whales, Save a Chckn" benefit in Feb. 2008, held to help with cancer treatment bills for guitarist Craig "Chckn" Jewett of D.I.
They are an independent band under the Nitro Records banner, which was started by Offspring vocalist Dexter Holland , for whom T.S.O.L. is cited as an influence.
In December 2008, the band, in cooperation with Hurley International , entered the studio to record Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Free Downloads which was, as the title suggests, made available as a free download through Hurley's website on January 8, 2009. http://www.hurley.com/tsol/
Film
In 1981, director Paul Young made ''Urban Struggle: The Battle of The Cuckoo's Nest'', a film which features live performances by T.S.O.L., as well as several other Orange County punk and hardcore bands. Dave Markey's 1982 film The Slog Movie also features live T.S.O.L. performances. Their music is also featured in the 1984 movie Suburbia (film)|Suburbia , the 1985 version of popular horror movie Return of the Living Dead , Summer Sessions (Skateboarding Video) in 1985 and Dangerously Close in 1986. They were also mentioned in the documentary '' Punk's Not Dead (2007 film)|Punk's Not Dead ''. The 1986 Billabong's legendary 'Surf into Summer 86' featured T.S.O.L. and Agent Orange on a soundtrack.
T.S.O.L. Category:Hardcore punk groups from California Category:Musical groups established in 1979 Category:American death rock musical groups Category:Anarcho-punk groups Category:Glam metal musical groups Category:Horror punk Category:Musical groups from Los Angeles, California
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